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DISTURB— l 


LECTURE  No.  43 

BY  DR.  CHARLES  E.  CHAPMAN 


ADDRESS 

MR.  J.  W.  SANGER 


HELD  AT  237  MERCHANTS  EXCHANGE  BUILDING 
SAN  FRANCISCO.  CALIFORNIA 


1919 


Delivered    under    Auspices    of 

The  Foreign  Trade  Club  of  San  Francisco 

W.  H.  HAMMER,  President  WM.  E.  HAGUE,  Sec.-Treas. 

OFFICE : 

Room  5,  Monadnock  Budding 

San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Price  50  Cents 


£ 


A  COMMERCIAL  SURVEY  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA 

By  J.   W.   SANGER 

Trade  Commissioner  of  the  United  ©twtes  Department  of  Commerce 

An  address  delivered  before  the  Foreign  Trade  Club  Wednesday  evening. 

September  11th,  1919. 


Now  that  I  have  returned  from  South  America,  I  wish  that 
I  might  come  before  you  and  assure  you  that  our  foreign  trade 
problems  have  been  solved  by  virtue  of  our  enormous  increase 
of  trade  with  our  Latin-American  neighbors.  Imposing  arrays 
of  figures  have  been  quoted,  and  we  are  told  that  last  year  we 
sold  the  twenty  Latin-American  countries  the  enormous  sum 
of  three-quarters  of  a  billion  dollars  worth  of  goods,  which  rep- 
resents considerably  more  than  doubling  of  our  business  with 
them  before  the  war.  It  is  true  that  today  we  are  selling  them 
more  than  fifty  per  cent  of  their  entire  imports,  which  means 
that  our  total  is  greater  than  that  of  all  the  other  exporting 
countries  combined.  This  is  an  excellent  showing  and  one  on 
which  we  are  to  be  congratulated  when  one  realizes  the  disad- 
vantages under  which  we  were  and  are  laboring.  However, 
this  increase  should  not  lull  us  into  the  belief  that  we  are  going 
to  retain  even  a  good  share  of  this  increase  without  the  hardest 
kind  of  intelligent  work.  The  bald  and  uncomfortable  fact  is 
that  we  secured  this  business  very  largely  because  the  European 
sources  of  supply  were  closed  and  the  South  American  mer- 
chants had  their  choice  of  buying  from  us  or  not  at  all.  Before 
we  pass  on  to  the  advertising  survey  that  took  me  to  South 
America,  suppose  we  look  into  the  advantages  that  the  Euro- 
pean countries  possessed  before  the  war  and  which  gave  them 


a  predominating  share  of  this  trade.  First  of  all  were  their 
heavy  investments  in  railroads  and  other  enterprises.  In  Ar- 
gentina, for  example,  English  capital  controls  sixty-five  per 
cent  of  the  railways,  and  French  capital  twenty-five  per  cent. 
Their  own  people  are  in  active  charge,  and  it  is  only  natural 
that  purchases  of  equipment  should  be  made  in  the  mother 
country.  Outside  of  mining  investments  on  the  west  coast  and 
meat  packing  plants  on  the  east  coast,  American  investments  in 
South  America  are  negligible.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  some  of 
the  immense  surplus  capital  we  have  at  present  will  go  into 
South  American  enterprises,  because  trade  follows  investment 
just  as  surely  us  water  seeks  its  own  level. 

Secondly,  we  need  fast  and  regular  lines  of  ships  to  all  im- 
portant Latin-American  ports.  Before  the  war  many  of  the 
European  lines  ran  almost  on  train  schedule,  so  the  importer 
knew  almost  to  a  day  when  his  goods  would  arrive.  In  banking 
facilities  we  have  improved  more  than  in  any  other  one  thing 
since  1914,  and  today  three  large  American  banks  have 
branches  established  in  many  of  the  most  important  Latin- 
American  countries.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  continue 
to  extend  their  facilities. 

Another  important  feature  is  that  of  direct  and  aggressive 
sales  representation  on  the  ground,  to  which  the  European 
countries  owe  so  much  of  their  success.  Branch  houses  are,  of 
course,  the  best  if  the  amount  of  business  justifies  it.  If  not 
that,  then  let  us  have  American  representation  in  all  the  im- 
portant cities;  or,  if  that  is  impossible,  then  native  houses  as 
representatives. 

We  have  been  entirely  too  content  with  'sending  our  cata- 
logues to  interested  inquirers  and  appointing  them  as  our 
agents  without  finding  out  whether  they  represent  competing 
lines  or  handle  such  a  diversity  of  lines  as  to  make  it  impos- 
sible for  them  to  properly  represent  us  at  all.  Many  of  such 
houses  are  merely  order  takers  and  not  sales  representatives 
at  all. 

Another  advantage  that  the  European  countries  had  was 
lower  manufacturing  costs  and  an  industrial  system  better 
adapted  to  manufacturing  especially  for  export.  If  that  ad- 
vantage continues,  and  the  relative  manufacturing  costs  of 
American  and  European  goods  remains  the  same,  we  can,  in 
the  better  class  of  goods,  overcome  partially  this  difficulty 
through  better  salesmanship  and  through  advertising.  Gener- 
ally speaking,  American  goods  have  the  reputation  abroad  of 
being  good  but  high  priced. 


The  question  of  credits  is  another  important  feature.  The 
whole  business  fabric  of  South  America  is  built  on  a  basis  of 
longer  terms  than  we  are  accustomed  to.  All  the  European 
countries  recognized  this  and  adjusted  themselves  accordingly, 
but  Germany  more  than  any  other  extended  it  until  it  some- 
times reached  the  point  of  being  little  better  than  money  lend- 
ing and  not  merchandising  at  all.  No  one  can  safely  predict 
exactly  what  credit  extension  Latin- America  will  require  in  the 
future,  but  certainly  we  shall  have  to  be  more  liberal  than  we 
have  been  during  the  past  four  years.  This  is  a  matter  that 
will  very  largely  have  to  be  left  to  our  sales  representative  in 
South  America,  which  is  all  the  more  reason  for  using  only 
fully  equipped  and  high  class  men  for  this  purpose. 

We  are  thinking  in  terms  of  foreign  trade  now  as  never  be- 
fore, but  we  don't  always  remember  that  it  is  not  merely  an 
opportunity  but  an  obligation  as  well. 

The  huge  industrial  equipment  which  we  have  built  up  dur- 
ing the  war  will  either  be  scrapped  and  become  an  economic 
loss,  or  turned  to  the  uses  of  manufacturing  for  export. 

We  have  doubled  our  manufacturing  capacity  so  that  today 
it  totals  annually  seventy  billion  dollars.  While  we  have  in- 
creased our  export  trade,  even  today  it  represents  something 
less  than  ten  per  cent  of  this  total,  whereas  other  exporting 
nations  send  abroad  from  twenty  to  forty  per  cent  of  their 
total  production.  Other  countries,  notably  Great  Britain, 
largely  through  necessity,  were  compelled  to  regard  their  for- 
eign trade  as  no  less  important  than  their  domestic  business, 
whereas  with  us  it  has  always  been  a  mere  incident  and  a  side 
issue.  While  necessity  may  have  been  the  compelling  force 
with  them,  in  learning  to  meet  its  needs  they  came  to  have  an 
international  outlook  on  things.  It  is  said  that  it  was  the  Eng- 
lish boy's  love  of  running  away  to  sea  that  at  bottom  was  re- 
sponsible for  building  up  the  British  merchant  marine.  It  was 
the  need  for  going  to  the  far  corners  of  the  earth,  and  buying 
the  raw  materials  that  they  could  not  produce  at  home,  that 
gave  these  people  their  world-wide  viewpoint. 

Most  of  us  Americans  are  still  somewhat  in  the  position  of 
Bobby,  whose  teacher  asked  him,  "Who  was  the  first  man?" 
and  Bobby  promptly  answered,  "George  Washington."  "You 
know  better  than  that,"  said  the  teacher,  "you  know  it  was 
Adam,"  "Oh,  well."  was  Bobby's  answer,  "I  wasn't  countin' 
foreigners. ' ' 

A  good  many  of  us,  unfortunately,  still  feel  like  Bobby,  and 
that  attitude  does  not  build  foreign  business  which  is,  in  its 
fundamentals,    no    different    from    domestic    business.      It    re- 


quires  its  own  forms  of  specialized  knowledge,  the  same  as  for 
business  at  home,  and  what  we  Americans  need  to  give  to  it 
more  than  anything  else  is  the  same  degree  of  intelligence  that 
we  apply  to  the  solution  of  domestic  marketing  problems.  Now 
that  we  have  set  ourselves  to  the  job  of  grappling  with  these 
problems,  I  believe  we  will  solve  them,  because  if  there  is  one 
tiling  we  have  developed  to  a  greater  degree  than  anybody  else, 
it  is  the  genius  for  adaptability. 

When  one  is  abroad,  I  think  it  is  a  pretty  good  policy  to  de- 
fend his  own  countrymen  and  explain  their  mistakes,  but  when 
lie  comes  back  home  then  is  the  time  for  him  to  tell  the  plain 
unvarnished  facts  when  the  foreign  neighbors  are  not  around  to 
hear  the  gossip. 

ADVERTISING  S 

Now  to  come  to  the  advertising  phase  of  the  problem,  be- 
cause it  was  that  that  took  me  to  South  America.  It  is  only 
after  you  get  out  of  your  own  country  that  you  realize  that 
modern  advertising  as  we  have  developed  it  is  largely  an  Amer- 
ican idea.  Not  but  that  it  is  used  everywhere,  and  in  South 
America  very  generously,  but  that  no  other  country  than  our 
own  has  given  to  it  and  to  the  larger  problem  of  merchandising 
the  same  degree  of  care  and  skill.  It  is  to  our  ability  in  mar- 
keting, in  adapting  these  things  we  have  learned  to  do  so  well 
at  home  to  the  conditions  as  we  find  them  abroad,  that  we  must 
turn,  to  offset,  at  least  temporarily,  our  other  disadvantages. 

Only  time  will  furnish  us  with  the  advantages  of  huge  for- 
eign investments,  adequate  shipping  facilities,  full  and  com- 
plete American  foreign  representation,  and  such  changes  in 
manufacturing  as  may  become  necessary.  These  are  perma- 
nent factors  for  which  there  is  no  complete  substitute.  But, 
in  the  meantime,  our  skill  as  merchandisers  and  in  advertising 
will  pave  the  way,  and  will  enable  us  to  develop  our  own  pecu- 
liarly effective  means  of  holding  our  own  in  these  markets.  We 
have  spent  many  years  and  many  millions  of  dollars  learning 
how  to  do  it  at  home,  and  it  now  remains  for  us  to  fit  this  abil- 
ity to  foreign  markets. 

Latin- America  is  made  up  of  twenty  different  countries,  no 
two  of  which  are  precisely  alike,  and  many  of  them  are  widely 
different,  the  only  thing  they  have  in  common  being  their  Latin 
blood.  South  America  alone  is  made  up  of  ten  different  coun- 
tries. One  of  these  countries  alone,  Brazil,  is  as  large  as  the 
entire  United  States.  Another  of  them,  Argentina,  is  as  large  as 
all  of  our  states  east  of  the  Mississippi  River,  with  Texas  thrown 
in  for  good  measure. 


The  language  common  to  them  all  is  Spanish,  except  in  Brazil, 
where  Portuguese  is  the  language,  and  Spanish  will  not  serve 
there,  no  matter  if  people  do  tell  you  so  and  even  if  the  two 
languages  look  and  are  alike.  French  is  the  second  best  lan- 
guage to  use  in  Brazil. 

Then  take  the  question  of  patriotism.  Each  of  these  coun- 
tries has  its  own  highly  developed  feeling  of  patriotism,  and 
whether  right  or  wrong,  thinks  that  the  sun  rises  and  sets 
within  the  boundaries  of  his  country.  We  must  not  blame  them 
for  that  because  that  is  what  we  honestly  think  of  our  own 
country.  They  don't  call  us  "Americans."  but  "North  Amer- 
icans," or  sometimes  "Yankees."  And  it  would  be  well  for 
us  to  get  into  the  habit  of  thinking  of  them,  not  under  the  term 
of  South  Americans,  but  as  Chileans,  Argentines,  Brazilians, 
etc.  I  can  assure  you  that  you  never  forget  that  when  you  are 
in  their  countries. 

Another  thing  to  remember  is  that  their  customs  and  tradi- 
tions are  quite  as  important  to  them  as  ours  are  to  us,  and  that 
they  are  radically  different  from  ours.  They  are  not  a  mechan- 
ical or  inventive  people  and  they  are  not  as  a  rule  business 
men  if  they  can  avoid  it.  They  prefer  to  be  doctors,  lawyers, 
in  politics  or  to  be  gentlemen  farmers. 

Advertising  is  widely  used  throughout  South  America,  but 
its  development  is  rather  primitive  and  is  about  where  ours  was 
just  after  the  Civil  War.  Differences  in  customs  in  the  differ- 
ent countries,  poor  transportation  facilities,  two  languages 
(Spanish  and  Portuguese),  make  very  wide  circulations  of 
newspapers  and  magazines  impossible.  Generally  speaking  the 
publications  of  each  country  do  not  go  outside  of  it.  and  in 
some  cases,  as  in  Brazil,  there  is  little  or  no  circulation  of  a 
newspaper  outside  of  the  city  or  state  where  it  appears. 

Buenos  Aires  publications  circulate  more  widely  throughout 
Argentina  than  do  other  South  American  publications  in  their 
respective  countries. 

South  America  is  primarily  a  newspaper  rather  than  a  maga- 
zine field,  and  most  of  its  best  papers  are  morning  rather  than 
evening  papers.  Outside  of  the  newspapers  there  are  no  widely 
circulating  media  except  the  illustrated  weeklies.  Their  trade 
journals  are  not  important,  and  our  export  trade  papers  printed 
in  New  York  in  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  together  with  catalogs 
and  other  means  that  have  been  found  successful,  will  be  used 
to  reinforce  direct  salesmanship  among  the  trade. 

The  best  of  the  daily  newspapers  are  very  good,  and  some  of 
them,  particularly  those  of  Buenos  Aires,  would  rank  as  great 
newspapers.     The  individual  circulations  are  not   as  large  as 


ours.  For  example,  Buenos  Aires  has  about  the  same  popula- 
tion as  Philadelphia  and  its  largest  daily  has  an  average  cir- 
culation of  165,000. 

However,  there  are  more  newspapers  published  than  with  us, 
and  what  is  more  important  to  advertisers,  they  are  much  more 
thoroughly  read.  Instead  of  buying:  four  papers,  a  man  will 
buy  one  and  read  it  from  the  first  page  to  the  last.  The  habit 
of  skimming  through  a  paper  is  not  common  there,  and  their 
leisurely  habits  are  extended  to  their  reading  as  to  everything 
else. 

Outside  of  the  newspapers,  the  weekly  reviews  are  widely 
read,  particularly  by  women.  They  are  rather  cheaply  gotten 
up.  being  printed  usually  on  news  stock  and  not  on  calendared 
paper,  so  that  the  fine  effects  seen  in  our  magazines  are  not  to 
be  found  in  these  "re vistas"  or  weekly  reviews.  They  cost  only 
from  five  to  ten  cents,  and  one  of  them  has  a  circulation  of  over 
100,000. 

There  are  no  audited  circulations,  and  except  for  the  leading 
publications,  the  publishers'  statements  must  be  discounted  on 
the  ground  of  enthusiasm,  or  suspicion  of  his  fellow  publishers. 
My  own  estimates  of  their  actual  circulations  will  appear  in  my 
reports,  and  are  based  upon  a  very  careful  checking  and  re- 
ehecking  secured  from  a  great  many  unusual  sources  to  which 
I  had  access. 

Local  advertising  rates  are  usually  much  lower  than  foreign 
rates.  The  South  American  publisher's  experience  with  Amer- 
ican advertisers  has  been  that  so  many  either  do  not  pay  their 
bills  or  pay  them  slowly,  that  lie  simply  tacked  on  enough  so 
that  we  would  pay  for  the  losses  and  delays.  During  my  calls 
on  hundreds  of  these  publishers,  I  realized  that  their  viewpoint 
could  not  be  changed  unless  some  better  arrangement  for 
prompt  payment  could  be  affected. 

I  therefore  made  arrangements  with  all  the  important  pub- 
lishers whereby  American  advertisers  can  secure  local  rates  by 
paying  their  bills  promptly  through  the  local  branches  of  Amer- 
ican banks  in  South  America. 

As  regards  other  forms  of  advertising  such  as  street  cars, 
painted  walls,  bill  boards,  etc.,  which  are  widely  used  in  many 
of  the  large  South  American  cities,  in  their  present  shape  I 
doubt  if  they  are  readily  usable  by  an  American  advertiser.  In 
the  principal  Brazilian  cities  the  street  car  advertising  is  con- 
trolled by  an  American  and  is  consequently  better  handled 
than  elsewhere.  In  Buenos  Aires  all  forms  of  outdoor  adver- 
tising are  better  developed  than  in  other  cities.  However,  all 
in  all,  the  uncertain  prices,  the  loosely  organized  methods  of 


handling  them,  and,  above  all,  the  very  bad  display  methods  in 
vogue,  render  them  of  very  much  less  consequence  there  "than 
here,  where  they  are  properly  handled. 

There  is  need  for  more  activity  on  the  part  of  American  ad- 
vertising agencies  in  South  America.  None  of  our  agencies  have 
more  than  the  barest  nominal  representation  there,  and  while 
they  have  done  some  good  work  and  are  well  thought  of  by  the 
publishers,  they  have  not  regarded  the  field  as  sufficiently  prom- 
ising or  profitable  to  establish  capable  local  points  of  contact. 
However,  the  last  two  3rears  have  produced  a  tremendously 
greater  interest  in  all  foreign  sales  problems,  and  with  it  the 
manufacturer  is  asking  his  advertising  agency  for  specific 
marketing  and  merchandising  information  about  South  Amer- 
ica. As  a  result  of  this,  the  American  advertising  agent  is  set- 
ting about  the  task  of  securing  information  that  will  eventually 
enable  him  to  render  somewhat  the  same  service  abroad  as  at 
home. 

At  present  there  are  no  advertising  agencies  anywhere  in 
South  America  except  in  Buenos  Aires,  where  their  work  is 
purely  local  in  character.  They  have  neither  the  training  nor 
the  ability  to  render  the  intensive  and  highly  complex  services 
required  of  a  modern  American  advertising  agency.  They  have 
partially  met  the  demands  that  have  been  made  on  them  but 
these  demands  were  very  simple  ones.  We  have  passed  the  point 
for  employing  advertising  in  a  perfunctory  way  in  Latin-Amer- 
ica, and  the  advertising  agency  that  will  render  a  foreign  ser- 
vice at  all  commensurate  with  his  domestic  service  will  be  a 
highly  important  factor.  He  will  be  one  of  the  indispensable 
links  in  the  merchandising  chain  that  will  uncover  the  markets, 
determine  the  media,  and  devise  the  copy  appeal  to  use. 

What  kind  of  copy  shall  we  use  in  reaching  the  Latin-Amer- 
icans? is  a  common  question.  It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  been 
floundering  between  two  extremes.  On  the  one  hand  are  the 
advertisers  who  attempt  to  transmit  or  translate  their  Ameri- 
can copy  literally  by  merely  putting  it  into  Spanish  or  Portu- 
guese. On  the  other  hand  are  those  who  tell  us  that  South 
Americans  have  no  point  in  common  with  us  and  that  therefore 
an  entirely  new  type  of  advertising  must  He  devised  for  them, 
just  as  though  they  came  from  .Mars  and  saw  everything  up- 
side down.  Personally,  T  don't  think  the  job  is  either  as  simple 
or  as  difficult  as  these  two  extremes  make  it  out  to  be.  A 
literal  translation  of  American  advertising  into  Spanish  or  Por- 
tuguese is  nearly  always  ineffective  and  sometimes  actually  mis- 
leading, because  it  is  impossible  to  render  our  idioms  exactly 
into  another  language  and  make  them  understood  as  the  writer 


understood  then].  Even  if  idioms  are  not  used  to  any  great  ex- 
tent, an  exact  translation  is  unfortunate,  because  all  the  flavor 
of  the  original  is  lost  and  in  translation  it  becomes  weak  and 
unnatural.  Taking  the  other  extremist — -the  one  who  thinks 
Latin-Americans  walk  on  their  heads  instead  of  their  feet — the 
"bogey"  he  uses  is  the  phrase  "they  are  different."  He  is 
right,  they  are  different.  But,  how  different,  and  in  what  way? 
That's  what  we  want  to  know. 

Here  are  a  few  suggestions  I  would  make  with  the  idea  that 
on  them  we  can  adapt  and  modify  our  American  copy  appeals 
so  as  to  be  effective  with  Latin- Americans.  Their  language  is 
different,  and  whether  we  use  Spanish  or  Portuguese,  it  should, 
if  possible,  be  written  by  one  of  their  own  people.  By  that,  I 
mean  that  a  Brazilian  should  write  for  Brazilians,  an  Argentine 
for  Argentines,  a  Cuban  for  Cubans,  and  so  on.  He  should  be 
given  as  much  latitude  as  the  man  who  conceived  the  original 
idea  in  English,  because  his  is  the  task  of  adapting  that  idea 
into  the  language  of  his  own  people  so  as  to  have  it  reach  them 
in  the  easiest  and  most  effective  way.  He  should  have  a  suffi- 
cient knowledge  of  the  English  language,  and  of  our  habits  of 
thought,  to  be  able  to  grasp  the  basic  idea  that  lies  behind  the 
advertising  as  it  is  originally  presented  in  English,  and  then  he 
should  be  left  as  free  as  possible  to  "put  it  over"  with  his  own 
people.  He  knows  the  customs,  the  habits  of  thought,  and  the 
little  every-day  habits  of  his  own  people  just  as  we  know  ours. 
He  knows  the  little-big  differences  that  climate  produces  in 
people,  and  he  knows  these  things  automatically  and  without 
consciously  thinking  about  them  at  all.  If  he  is  writing  to  an 
Argentine,  he  will  know  that  neither  languid  senoritas  nor 
moth-eaten  bull  fighters  will  make  any  personal  appeal  to  them, 
while  if  he  is  writing  to  Peruvians  he  is  aware  that  the  toreador 
and  the  bull  ring  are  still  national  features.  He  will  never  un- 
der any  circumstances  encourage  a  campaign  to  sell  overcoats* 
along  the  coast  of  Brazil,  nor  breakfast  foods  in  Peru,  lawn 
mowers  in  Chile,  or  Palm  Beach  clothes  in  Buenos  Aires  in 
July,  which  is  the  middle  of  the  winter  there. 

We  need  to  educate  the  dealer  more,  and  supply  him  with 
helps  which  are  not  provided  by  European  exporters.  This  is 
an  American  idea  also,  just  as  are  practical  demonstrations  of 
merchandise,  and  showing  a  dealer  how  to  conduct  his  store 
along  more  modern  and  profitable  lines.  The  South  American 
retailer  won't  take  to  these  things  over  night  because  his  train- 
ing and  traditions  are  all  against  it,  but  if  he  can  see  that  these 
things  will  bring  him  more  business,  the  idea  will  win  with  him, 
provided  it  is  presented  persistently  and  tactfully.    The  South 


American  importer  and  merchant,  by  the  way,  is  seldom  if 
ever  a  native  South  American,  but  nearly  always  a  Spaniard, 
Italian,  Englishman,  German  or  other  European. 

Regarding  trademarks,  register  your  trademark  before  you 
enter  South  American  markets,  not  afterwards,  and  have  it  reg- 
istered in  your  own  name  and  not  in  the  name  of  your  agent  or 
representative.  Long  continued  use  of  a  mark  has  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  ownership  of  it  anywhere  in  South 
America.  The  man  who  registers  it  first,  owns  it,  and  can  pre- 
vent you  from  using  your  own  mark.  In  some  Latin-American 
countries  it  is  not  even  necessary  for  the  one  registering  it  to 
ever  make  any  use  of  it,  and  it  is  not  an  uncommon  practice  to 
make  a  business  of  registering  foreign  trade  marks  with  the 
sole  purpose  of  "holding  up"  the  owner  later  on.  Even  if  you 
have  no  representation,  and  think  you  never  will  have,  if  you 
send  any  goods  there  through  commission  houses,  register  your 
mark  just  the  same.  The  day  may  come  when  you  will  need  it, 
and  when  it  may  cost  you  $50,000  to  buy  it  back,  instead  of  the 
$50  it  may  cost  you  today. 

Just  a  word  about  the  attitude  of  South  America  toward  us, 
and  I'm  through.  All  in  all,  it  is  one  of  distinct  friendliness 
toward  us,  and  in  certain  countries,  notably  Brazil  and  Uru- 
guay, the  feeling  of  friendliness  toward  us  is  particularly 
marked.  There  is  no  suspicion  of  us  as  the  great  Colossus  of 
the  north  ready  to  take  advantage  of  them  and  gobble  them  up 
when  opportunity  offers.  Generally  speaking  their  people  are 
not  any  better  acquainted  with, us  and  our  country  than  we  are 
with  them.  However,  the  last  five  years  has  seen  increased 
travel  between  the  two  continents,  and  the  better  acquaintance 
that  travel  provokes  will  have  its  results  in  better  trade  rela- 
tions and  better  understanding  between  the  two  peoples.  Our 
entrance  into  the  war  was  something  that  brought  us  to  their 
notice  as  something  more  than  a  geographical  spot,  and  the  sec- 
'  ond  event  of  significance  was  the  coming  into  the  South  Ameri- 
can field  of  the  Associated  Press  and  the  United  Press..  Pre- 
vious to  their  arrival  we  were  best  known  as  the  country  that 
had  lynchings,  train  robberies,  scandals  in  high  life,  and  mu- 
nicipal graft.  Bad  news  travels  fast,  and  that  was  all  they 
heard  about  us. 

When  these  two  great  press  associations  arrived  in  the  field, 
they  proceeded  to  put  us  on  the  front  pages  every  day  with  the 
real  news,  and  not  merely  the  sensational  occurrences  of  the 
day. 

All  this  has  happened  in  two  years,  and  today  an  American 
can  pick  up  his  paper  nearly  anywhere  in  South  America,  and 


if  he  can  read  Spanish  or  Portuguese,  he  will  find  there  all  the 
important  news  items  of  his  own  country,  side  by  side  with 
those  of  England,  France,  Spain  and  Italy. 

It  isn't  until  one  has  been  in  strange  countries  speaking 
strange  tongues  that  one  realizes  what  splendid  makers  of  good 
will  these  two  press  associations  have  been.  They  deserve  the 
gratitude  of  every  American  who  is  proud  of  his  country  and 
wants  to  have  the  truth  about  it  known. 


Louis  Roesch  Co.,  Lith.  and  Print.,  S.  F. 


Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 
Stockton,  Calif. 

PAT.  JAN  21 


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